Following a very rough 10 weeks which i have been unable to work and have spend some time in hospital and am seeing the my hospital con weekly, i have been changed from Symbicort inhaler to Alvesco (Ciclesonide). Had difficutlies getting it from the pharmacy and the dosing because con wanted different to normal prescription....anyway just wondered if anyone had either heard of it or used it before and what your experiences were.

4 Replies

I used to use alvesco but I only used it for a short time. I think the theory behind it is similar to the use of qvar (whihc i switched to from alvesco). these products have been design to ahve smaller particles so the medication gets deeper into the lungs and has an effect on a greater proportion of the small airways.

I didnt get on with the alvesco but i think its mainly because it didnt suit me. I do remember there ebing some difficulty at the chemist getting it and getting the right dose etc. Im not sure if it is the same now as i think it was relitivly new when i was on it. (i dont know though)

sorry i can be of more help

Olive

8 years agoHidden

Hi Cory

I too am on ciclesonide, but I still take my Symbicort too (coz apparantly I'm ""high risk"", whatever that means!) it is a right pain to get at the chemists, especially as I am on a higher than recommended dose, which gets questioned a fair bit.

It works nicely for me though, as it is only activated in the lungs - other inhaled (and tablet) steroids get absorbed in to other systems and so you effectively get less in to your lungs, but this isn't the case with ciclesonide (Alvesco).

Keep at it, and if you use the same pharmacy regularly, you never know, they may get used to you having it prescribed and so become less awkward!

Feel free to PM me if you want

Best wishes

Emz x

8 years agoHidden

the easy way to get prescription meds, once you have a months supply is to phone the Lloyds Pharmacy 0800 707 6160, and ask for a online repeat prescription registration form. You fill it in, and send them your repeat form. Once thats done, you just phone up on the same number about 2 weeks before you need a refill, give then your credit card or prepayment certificate details, and they will get the prescription from your doc and post the meds out, all for free. Thats the way I've been doing things for the last 4 months, makes 1 thing about having asthma a bit easier to handle. Eventually the who system will be actually online and you will be able order and pay online, and the docs will authorise the script within a few hours, meaning the from request to getting the meds should only take a few days.

Chris

8 years agoHidden

Thanks

Its only a trial at the moment but am hoping that if i continue to use this inhaler that i do not get questioned everytime i take the prescription in, i know the pharmacy have to be careful and they even rang the consultant to confirm the dose because its higher than normal dose.

I am hoping that this will work for me and the other meds that i am trying at the moment, it would be nice to have some stability with my asthma and thus get back to some version of normaility.